Jodie Sweetin: Sobriety and Motherhood Have Been "Cathartic"

Former Full House star Jodie Sweetin has a lot to celebrate this holiday season.

The 27-year-old mom, separated from second husband Cody Halpern, is raising her daughter, Zoie, in a clean environment -- a different life than she lived just one year ago.

"I'm coming up on a year sober, and the last time I drank was the worst time ever in my drinking history," Sweetin tells Usmagazine.com in an exclusive video interview. "It definitely was the time where I realized I didn't want to be that person any more and was so spiritually and mentally miserable that I couldn't continue on that way."

The actress, who once bragged about her sobriety while still getting high, goes into candid detail about the dark events that ultimately set her straight in her memoir, unSweetined.

"I got sober for good on December 7, 2008," she recounts to Us. "I was flying to L.A., and I ended up taking a bunch of Nyquil and drinking a s---load. When I got home, I got a call that there was an emergency custody investigation because of my drinking. From that day forward, I threw myself into going to AA and avoided people who do blow off their coffee tables."

Now clean, Sweetin -- herself adopted as a child -- says she looks forward to setting the right example for her 19-month-old daughter.

"Having Zoie changed everything and made me realize the person I want to be and the example I want to be for her," Sweetin, who is currently battling for shared custody with Halpern, says. "Now I get to make different choices and be the mom that I want to be.